Projects

‘COVER’ – THE NETHERLANDS 2008

‘COVER’ – THE NETHERLANDS 2008

9 July, 2009

In September 2005 the photographers Viviane Sassen and Martine Stig travelled to Moscow with five ‘condom dresses’ by the Brazilian designer Adriana Bertini in their luggage. Stig and Sassen scouted around five locations in Moscow in search of young women – contemporary Cinderellas – to model the outfits. They recorded their quest in five series of photographs.

The founder of ArtAids, Han Nefkens, had bought Bertini’s textile and condom outfits at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok in 2004. As part of his H+F Collection, the outfits were given on long-term loan to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht but it soon became clear that the latex condoms could not be conserved. The desire to document the outfits before the condoms perished led to the commission for Stig and Sassen, who developed the Cover concept.

Viviane Sassen and Martine Stig sought their models among ordinary young women in the highly developed city of Moscow – focussed choices intended to challenge the stereotypes associated with Aids. Cover is a kaleidoscopic image of five young women, their cultures and urban Moscow in which Bertini’s condom dresses have been rendered ‘normal’.

Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.

Fundació Han Nefkens

The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.

Han Nefkens

According to Han Nefkens, sharing is the antidote to loneliness, and he does so through his artistic and anti-AIDS projects and his writing. In 1995, he made his debut with the autobiographical novel Bloedverwanten (“Parents”), which was followed by Twee lege stoelen (“Two empty chairs”, 2006) and De gevlogen vogel (“The bird flew”, 2008). Nefkens also writes short pieces, “vignettes”.